1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for automatically performing commercial or non-commercial transactions, settlements relating to these transactions, and information processing relating to commercial or non-commercial advertisements, using the computer systems of the parties involved in these transactions, and of a bank, and so forth, as well as a communication network between computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems are in use in which electronic data is exchanged, over a communication network, between the computer system of a supplier (company or government administration office) that supplies a product or service and the computer system of a buyer (individual or corporation) that purchases the product or service, such that information processing of the various transactions performed between the supplier and buyer, as well as settlements relating to such transactions (such as a payment of the charge for the product or service, a payment of a public utilities charge, or a tax payment, for example) are automatically executed in accordance with this exchange of information.
According to the prior art, the buyer is not provided with automation means serving to automatically collectively manage information relating to the arrival of invoices (information) from the supplier to the buyer, to the times for payment by the buyer, and to the deposits and withdrawals to and from the bank account of the buyer, and so forth. Consequently, the buyer is required to store and arrange this information by himself so as to not forget this information.
Further, transaction detailed statements and invoices are commonly sent from the supplier to the buyer by electronic mail. However, it is a pain for the buyer to have to search through a great variety of electronic mails received from various people in order to find the detailed statement(s) and/or invoice(s), of a specific transaction.
Also, according to the prior art, when the buyer approves an invoice, money is automatically paid out from the buyer's bank account to the supplier, meaning that the approval of the invoice and the corresponding settlement processing do not progress together in real time or with the appropriate timing.
Meanwhile also, based on the prior art, the supplier is not provided with automation means for automatically confirming, in real-time or with the appropriate timing, information relating to whether or not the buyer has seen the invoice, the time by which the buyer should make the payment, whether or not the buyer has approved the detailed statement of the invoice, whether or not the buyer has made the payment, and the time the payment was made. Hence, the supplier must divide up the substantial labor involved in order to manage and arrange a multiplicity of transaction information to thereby ascertain the cash flow.
The supplier also sends commercial or non-commercial advertisements to an unspecified multiplicity of buyers through the medium of newspaper and magazine space, and so forth, leaflets in trains and stations, direct mail, Internet home pages, and other media. However, the proportion of buyers that show an interest in such advertising is not particularly high. Thus, in advertising, the fact that better results require proportionally high costs is also a problem.